Brave Vesperia -The Chronicle of Valor-
by themojogamer75
Summary: Markus Talon is a young man who lives with his "brother" Yuri Lowell. Yuri is thrown in jail for a 10 day stay, but he comes out later with a noble girl who hopes to warn Flynn, a friend of Yuri's, of a danger. Markus and Repede, Yuri's dog, go with them. He doesn't know that he'll run into his vengeful father and a posssible soul-mate. A rewrite of Tales of Vesperia. Not an S.I.
1. Prologue

**This is the Prologue ****to the re-telling . Enjoy! (I recommend playing the Orchestral Version of the Kingdom Hearts theme while listening to this. Just a thought.)**

* * *

"It's nice to meet you Mr... Um."

"Markus. Markus Talon."

-A Young Man Troubled by a Past Riddled with Abuse-

"So it's matter?"

"Not quite. We call it mana."

-A Researcher of an Ancient Technology-

"Those 'laws' that 'keep the empire safe' just let Ragou walk out that door!"

-A Vigilante Who Believes in Absolute Justice-

"I can't go back! I can't!"

-A Mysterious Noble Who Despises Suffering-

"You killed your mother. I have no issue killing dreck like you."

-A Vengeful Father-

"I am going to save our world. Our Tercca Lumereis."

-A Veteran of an Ancient War-

* * *

"This is the path that I've chosen. I'm going to start a guild with my friends here."

-A treacherous journey...-

"It's gonna be a long road, Yuri. I hope you know what you're doing."

"Hey, I know what I'm doing! Have I ever lied to you?"

"Well, that one time about Tweedle A being a chick."

"Hey, his lips are so pink, he might as well be! Right, Repede?"

-A Partnership of Three-

"Markus..."

"...Yeah?"

"Don't think me rude for saying those things. Yuri has a divine sense of justice. I envy him for that."

-A Lifelong Friendship-

"Markus, how did you meet him?"

"Well, Yuri pretty much saved me from the Hell I was in."

-A Brotherly Relationship-

"He was wrong about the things he said, Markus! You helped my experience the world from outside Aspio!"

-A Close Bond-

* * *

"I won't forget who I fought or where I fought it!"

"Not bad. Good idea."

"Then I will make graves for everything back at the castle."

"...Yeah, I guess you could do that."

"She's kinda weird, don't you think?"

"Well, she's the textbook 'little naive noble'. But why where the knights chasing her?"

* * *

"I've gotta do this!"

"KAROL!"

"NOW OR NEVER!"

* * *

"What are you saying!?"

"Don't try to deny it!"

* * *

"We could do fine, if that thing was out of the sky!"

"Well, leave that to Brave Vesperia."

"Here we go again. How are you gonna get that thing out of the sky?"

-A Tale of Determination and of Confidence-

"The duty of the guilds is to do the jobs assigned to you."

"Basically, Yuri, Repede, Judith, and I are now mercenaries?"

-A Tale of Duty and of Decisions-

"You hate me, don't you, Rita?"

"No. Why would I hate you?"

"Because of that stupid choice I made."

"I'll never hate you. No matter what you do."

-A Tale of Love and Friendship-

"You don't have the right to wield our heirloom. You're to afraid to snag it from my hands."

"Yeah, well..."

-Lastly...-

"I'm no longer the weak, little Markus you put through Hell five years ago. I'll finish this! Right here! Right now!"

-...It's A Tale of Valor-

* * *

**So, what do you think? I know, kinda short, but this the Prologue of the story! It's gonna be a while before I begin writing, but let me know what you think of it!**


	2. Chapter I: When Your Life is Forfeit

**Okay, now let us begin writing! You've read the summary, so you already know what's up! **

**Also, Tales of Vesperia and all of the stuff in it, belongs to Namco Bandai and the Namco Tales Studio. I only own the OC's, the original scenes, and any new/original plot element.  
**

**So ladies and gentlemen, dudes and dudettes, here's out Tale!**

* * *

_**CHAPTER I: When Your Life Flashes Before Your**_ **_Eyes_**...

* * *

There I lay on the stone ground of Castle Talon, my clothing saturated in my blood. I watch my crimson blood flow out of my body, and into the cracks of the floor. The pain...feels as though a thousand daggers pierced my very being. I was confident that my life was forfeit, but I tried to get up, only to be knocked down again with a forceful blow, allowing more blood to leave my body. Eventually, the fatal blow was dealt: his blade went through my body. I fall on the cold, hard ground of that room, blood dripping out every second.

I clutch my chest with my sword arm, and picture the expressions on my friends faces. A stray tear ran down my face into one of the cracks. I think only of my friends, though I mostly think of the one I love more than anything that Terca Lumireis has to offer. Oh Goddess, she's the only thing I can think of! But, as I stated earlier, my life is forfeit.

Staring up at the maniac I once called "Father", I utter my last and reach up to the glittering, starry heavens, blood dripping from my hand as if it were rain.

"I'm...sorry...every..one. I failed."

* * *

Heh, it's like they say: Your life really does flash before your eyes. It was all there, coming right at me in a blinding flash of light.

It all began 16 years ago-My birth. I was born in the lower quarter of the Imperial Capital, Zaphias, to my father, Julius Talon, and my mother, Lyss Aerial. I wish I could remember my birth, but our minds aren't fully developed yet, are they?

My father was in the Imperial Knights of Zaphias, a man with dark navy hair that was always brushed backwards and golden eyes. A hero to many and my sword master. He fought in a giant war, known as the Great War, over 10 years ago. I can't recall what it was about. I'm too out of it, too in a state between life or death, too...lost.

I do know my name, but of course they tell you that constantly throughout your life. I remember what it meant-

"Markus...Markus..." My six year old self mumbled, sitting at our kitchen table. I kept mumbling it over and over and over again. "Markus...Markus..."

"Honey, what is it?" My mother asked, closing the door. She had returned from the well where we always washed our dishes, with a curious look on her face. She had hair that was white as snow and golden eyes, like my father's. She always wore a purple dress with a green glyph on the back of it, that all women in the lower quarter were envious of. She also had a loving, caring smile that always cheered me up when I was down.

"My name...what does it mean?" I looked up to my mother, a curious look on my face to.

The face of curiosity turns into a warm, loving smile. She walked over to me and stroked my short, sky blue hair. "Markus means...one who possesses great and knightly valor- bravery in yourself."

I was home schooled by my mother. I learned about the blastia, a nifty device that used aer, the planet's life force, to provide us things like light (lux), water (aque), warmth (thermo), and fighting skills. The last blastia I mentioned is called bhodi blastia. It increases fighting capabilities and makes it easier for us to use artes, which are powerful techniques that people like the knights use when in combat or training. There was also the barrier blastia, which protected the towns from monsters.

Personal bravery... if only she'd see me at this point.

My father trained me, and when I learned how to parry properly, I thought my life couldn't get any better. Well, in a sense, I was right.

Eight years ago, my mother had become sick -rather contaminated. I was only eight years old at the time with my father on a pilgrimage all of the Imperial Knights went through once a year. I don't remember what occurred or how I dealt with her illness, but I remember the tragic, saddening outcome. My mother was young, only 32 years old, and she perished earlier than anyone wanted. My mother, the one who had cared for me along with my father back then, had died.

My father didn't take it so well. As a matter of fact, he blamed everything that happened on me. I don't remember what I did, but he blamed it all on me. He spoke my new name..."dreck". That wasn't all, however. You do not know the Hell I went through eight years ago. Abuse, both mentally and physically, had occurred. I'm lucky I never got a scar from those moments, because I was to afraid fight back. I didn't want to hurt him, because he was all I had left. All of my other family had perished in the Great War. Him and I were the last of our clan, the Talons. I didn't want to be left alone. I was afraid I would kill him by accident. Boy, was I a worry-wort.

Though, all that changed when I met Yuri Lowell.

* * *

I remember, it was either three or four years ago when I finally had enough of the torment. It was a dark, gloomy, rainy night with darkening clouds blanketing the night sky. I fell back on the wall after feeling a painful impact of my father's hand to my cheek. Fed up, at the age of 13, I grabbed my wooden blade I had once used for training, got up, spread my feet apart and put myself in a battle pose.

"What, you are finally fighting back?! What cowardice! You are not going to fight back. Your eyes are those of a beginner, you foolish dreck! You could not fight back even if you had intended to!" My father said, coming at me with a booming voice. He was right. I was shaking as if I was freezing to death and breathing anxiously as if I was frightened, which I was. I was terrified of the fact I could kill my father, but I was also scared that he would kill _me._

I had no choice. Well, I did: get hit again or run away. As much as I didn't want to, I bolted for the door and swung it open, wooden blade in hand. I was greeted by an icy blast of wind and rain drops that pelted me like nails (of course, that could've been from them hitting the pain on my cheek.). I didn't look back in fear that my psychopathic father was chasing me. Though, even if he was, I would've lost him because I was fast. I don't wanna brag, but I could parry slightly lower than the speed of lightning. That also goes for my running speed.

I eventually had to stop under the streetlight powered by the lux blastia to catch my breath. I didn't care that the rain was beating down on me, because I was convinced I had lost him. After a minute, I talked to myself.

"DAMMIT! I froze up again. I'm nothing _but_ a coward!" I said to myself in an angry, frustrated, hopeless voice. I was lost, cold, and afraid. I gazed at my wooden blade, long and hard, until I decided to swing it at nothing. I was training and telling myself, "Just swing. Just freaking _swing_! How hard is that!?"

"Apparently, it's pretty hard if you said you freeze up." I heard a voice belonging to a very young adult out of the darkness say.

In the cold rain, I turned to my right. "Wh-Who's there?!" I stood in my battle pose at the time: both of my hands gripping onto the handle of the blade, standing with my body sideways, but my heat and feet toward the target, one shoulder further out than the other. It was a pretty helpful strategy for fighting, and I heard about a blonde spiky haired guy using this pose. Granted, it was a little hard to do because the blade's handle was short, but I managed.

"Sheesh! Calm down! It's not like I'm gonna hurt you!" The voice said, out of the darkness.

"I know that there's crazy people in this world. You don't know what you may get yourself into when a voice just randomly speaks out of the dark!" I said, filled with a little bit of fear and a little bit of bravery. Yeah, I know I can't swing at my dad, but I know how to be brave in other areas, like speaking.

"Look, let's calm down here. What's going on here?"

"Is there any reason I should tell you?"

"Well, I don't even know why I asked, because it's written there all over you face!" The voice replied, half angry, half omniscient. I put my hand on the cheek my father had hit with his hand. It was warm, and obviously it was red. How could this guy tell what was going on? I kept thinking about that, while I stood there.

I grazed my face with a fierce expression. "This doesn't concern you!" I didn't trust people I didn't know. I know everyone in the lower quarter (well, except him at the time), so I can trust them. I wasn't sure about trusting someone I didn't know on a personal level. My mindset was this: You meet someone, you get to know them, and then you can trust them with your problems, NOT the other way around. I still thought that way up until recently, but I'll get there when I get there.

"Well then, if it doesn't concern me, then why not strike at me?" the voice, yet again, said. This time, the voice had a hint of cockiness to it. Not too much, but you could tell he was onto something.

I let up my fierce expression, to more of a shocked expression. Why did he want me to swing at him? I prepared for battle, despite the fact it was more of a test. I ran up to the source of darkness where the voice came from and struck at the source, only to be blocked and forcefully pushed back a few feet by a blade. I was shocked, because I felt more force than when I was usually hit by my father's blade back when he would train me.

"That's a parry?" The voice asked with curiosity, yet again with cockiness within it.

With anger, I got back up and dashed at the source, and struck again. The same result happened. This kept going on, and on, and on, like the cycle of the seasons. I finally gave up after the seventh time, only to hear the voice taunting me.

"Had enough already?" Except...this wan't so much a taunt as it was a question. I could tell, because I heard him sheath his blade and out of the darkness, I saw a hand reach down for me, as if trying to help me. I could've been a jerk and decline it, but there was something about this person that made me feel safe. I didn't know what it was at the time.

I took up his offer and grabbed his hand, which lifted me off of the ice cold, wet street. My clothes were damp, but I didn't really care. It could have been worse.

I staggered a bit when I got up, but I managed. I finally got the courage to talk to this person. I felt I could trust him. "Who are you?"

"Heheh, first you're don't like me, now you wanna know my name." The source of the voice finally walked into the light. He appeared to be around the age of 18, with long black hair that reached a little past his shoulders and purple eyes. He wore a longed sleeved black and purple vest, with white glyphs. He also wore black pants and white boots with metal prongs holding some black laces. He had a golden bhodi blastia with a red gem in the center. His blade and it's sheath were tied around a string, which he held between his left index and middle fingers. His blade appeared to be a katana, and written on the side of the sheath was "Second Star".

He smiled. "You're really a mixed bag, right Repede? Come here boy!"

After he said that, I heard a small bark. A dog? Well, I was just about to find out. Just then, a little puppy walked into the light. He was really young, with fur of indigo and white. He wore a leather harness, that appeared to be a little big for him, that held a small dagger. He also had pipe in his mouth and a chain around his neck. I thought that might be painful for him, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Please, tell me your name." I was becoming anxious. I don't know why, but I wanted to know this stranger's name. He was friendly in a way I've never seen before.

"Fair enough. Yuri. Yuri Lowell." He gestured toward the puppy. "And this is Repede." The puppy he called came up and sniffed at my boots. He seemed to be very curious, but aren't we all at that young of an age?

"You got a name?" Yuri asked me, reaching down to pet Repede.

"Markus Talon." I told him, feeling a little nervous about telling him my name. Everyone loved my father. It's a shame they didn't get to know who he was after he quit the knights.

Yuri got up and looked at me for a second. "Wait, you're related to Julius Talon?" Bingo!

"Y-Yeah. I'm his son."

"He was a big role model for the knights. You should see how crazy they are when someone tells them a tale of Julius. Just about every knight wants to be like him." Yuri said, with a kind of blank expression on his face. I was shocked that he didn't go all "Oh Goddess! You're realated to THE Julius Talon?! Can I have his autograph?" (Yes, that has happened to me once before.) But, I was also relieved that he wasn't so interested.

"Wait, how do you know that?" I asked, curious look grazed upon my face. In case you don't know, the only people who know what the knights are doing, are nobles or the knights themselves.

"Let's not talk about that now. What happened to him? I hear he just up and quit five years ago." Yuri asked.

I stayed silent for a minute. I was still nervous about telling him my problems with my dad, my mom's demise, or anything like that. I didn't feel that Yuri was trustworthy enough, but that wasn't about to matter in about five second.

"Hey, you okay?" Yuri asked.

"Sorry, I just..." I nervously said.

"Huh? What's up? If you've got something to say, then say it." Yuri was calm and patient. A little cocky, but he was a nice guy.

"...I don't like to talk about it." I finally said.

"Don't tell me. He's the thing you're afraid to swing at." Yuri said.

"H-How did you know!?" I asked, shocked. Yuri is a freaking psychic!

"Well, with you saying 'I froze up' or 'Just swing' it was kinda obvious." He said in a partly high pitched voice to imitate me.

"Hey! I don't sound like that!" I said, really hoping to change the subject. I didn't want Yuri to know about my past, because I didn't want to get him involved. Too late.

"What happened? Just tell me." Yuri said, with a kind of frustrated face. He made his way over to the pole of the lux blastia's holding area and leaned on it, propping his right leg up on it.

"Well, you see..." I told Yuri everything. About the death of my mother, the countless amounts of abuse, everything. I held back my tears to best of my ability. I didn't want Yuri to see me any weaker than I already was. He probably already saw me as weak, but I don't know what he really thought. I didn't want to seem like I was good-for-nothing. I eventually finished the tragic tale of my life to that point.

I wasn't sure if he would believe me or not, seeing as apparently the knights and nobles appeared as a sort of hero to them. I wasn't sure what Yuri thought of my dad, but I assumed he thought highly of him. Well, if he ever had respect for him, it all went down the river from then on.

* * *

"I see." He closed his eyes for a minute. I could hear the frustration in his voice. Was it at me? My dad? I wasn't sure. But, it was the latter. I know, because he said, "'How the mighty have fallen'. You ever hear that phrase?" He said, looking over at me.

I nodded my head. I knew what it meant. It meant that my father, once on top of the world, had sunk so low to blame me for everything. I shamefully agreed with that phrase. I don't know why it was shameful, but I wasn't alone with my choice. Yuri agreed as well. I didn't feel alone in that regard.

"Give me a second." Yuri said, walking the way he came from. Repede followed him. I wasn't sure if I wanted to follow him, because I didn't know what he was going to do. I decided to follow him, which set my life's path.

"Yuri! Wait!" I caught up with him, but he didn't turn around. _What's he doing?!_ I thought to myself. I wanted to know what he meant by "Give me a second". I continued to follow him through the blistering rain. We walked past the fountain of the lower quarter, and up a stone pathway, leading up.

_Wait. This is the_ _citizen's__ quarter!_ I thought to myself. It was a little hard to see, but I could tell where we were. What was Yuri going to do? Was he planning to tell someone? I was about to find out.

Eventually, after a long walk, we were at the royal castle in the royal quarter, which was the highest quarter in Zaphias. The lower quarter was for the poor people or people who had a decent amount of money. The upper quarter was for the people who had quite a bit of money or ran a business. Lastly, the royal quarter was for those in aristocracy or in the knights. It's a fairly simple caste system, but it's also a little unfair for those who own small businesses in the lower quarter, only to be denied to live on the upper quarter.

There weren't any knights at the entrance, which I found odd, seeing as the princess herself lives here. Oh well, I guess they were all over the place on the interior of the castle.

We walked up to the giant door way of the arch before the castle door, which was lit up by the golden light of the lux blastia. Yuri turned around and said, "Wait a minute". I nodded because that's all I could do. If I had asked Yuri "What are you going to do?" he probably would've said "You'll see," so I just went with it.

Yuri made a running start for a lux blastia's pole, and quickly climbed up it. Eventually, he reached the top of the pole and made a massive leap for the arch in front of the entrance. He saw another lux blastia pole, and jumped for that. He saw a window and it's sill light pouring out of it. He grinned and jumped for that. I was amazed that he could leap that far and that high. I would've broken my neck had I tried to do that then!

He grabbed and climbed up the window sill, securing his feet so he wouldn't fall a fatal distance (he was at least 15-25 feet off the ground). He placed his blade on the window sill, and propped it up on the wall. He quietly knocked on the window, I guess so he wouldn't alert the other knights. He would probably be charged with assassination attempts of a knight had he alerted them, knowing the crazy twisted world we live in.

The window opened, revealing a man with short blond hair, teal eyes and appeared to be the same age as Yuri. He also wore the green and blue lieutenant's armor, meaning that he was a knight. He seemed surprised that Yuri was there, but he let him in.

The two talked for a long time, I know because I heard some very distinct voices. I couldn't hear the conversation, but I knew what it was about: My father. I wondered what they where going to do, but my thoughts were interrupted when Repede walked up to me, his fur dripping with water. I wanted to be kind, so I gave Repede the red scarf I used to wear all the time, to keep him warm. He seemed to like it, as he wagged his little tail and happily barked.

I smiled and pet him. Even before he went insane, my father hated dogs. He thought that they were vermin that always wanted the food you went out and bought yourself. Am I glad that I didn't inherit that trait, because I love dogs. When my dad wasn't looking, I gave my leftover food to a stray dog and pet him. Repede reminds me of him, although smaller.

As I pet him, I asked him, "Is he always like this, boy?" I knew I looked stupid, talking to a dog and all, but I felt Repede would trust me. Repede barked happily as if to say, "Yeah, but he is a good person at heart." I believed him, despite the fact I wasn't sure if what he said was true or not. After all, he couldn't speak human, but I felt I could understand him. Though, something on him disturbed me: a scar on his left eye.

"A scar?!" I mumbled to myself. "What happened?"

* * *

I wasn't able to get an answer, because Yuri interrupted my train of thought after he climbed down. "It seems he's taken a liking to you already." The black haired swordsman smirked.

"Yuri, who was that knight?" I asked, praying to get an answer.

"An old friend of mine. I told him about your incident with your old man. I don't think he'll be bothering you anytime soon." Yuri said, looking past me. "He said we should wait for him at the inn in the lower quarter."

"Why? Do you think the innkeeper will mind?"

"Are you always this worrisome? I'm a regular there! I think they'll be overjoyed that I brought a guest!" He said, with a smile that made me sure that it was okay for me to go there.

We walked through the blistering rain again, down through the upper quarter, and back at the lower quarter. "Like the scarf you gave Repede." Yuri said.

"Yeah, well he was a little cold. I thought he needed it." I said, smiling for the first time in a while. I could finally trust Yuri entirely. He did something I couldn't do. Though, after getting to know him three years later, I'm shocked he didn't do his other method.

Sorry, got a little ahead of myself there. Anyway, we arrived at the inn in the lower quarter, called Star of Xillia. We walked in the inn's restaurant, to be greeted by a kind lady behind a counter, wearing a pink shirt and an apron.

"Welcome to Star of Xil- Oh it's Yuri and Repede!" The lady said. She looked down at me. "Who is this young boy with you?"

"This is Markus. You don't mind if he stays here for a little while, do you?" Yuri asked, propping his sword up on a wall. Repede went to go rest in a corner of the inn's restaurant. I put my wooden blade on the wall also.

"Sure! Make yourself at home!" She said with a kind loving smile that reminded me of my mother.

"Thank you." I bowed, a common thing for knights and aristocrats to do. It was a little embarrassing to say the least, but I wanted to do it, because it showed thanks and honor. Heh, to think three years later I would just say, "Thanks."

I heard Yuri speak. "His father was a knight." I assume that the lady had a puzzled look on her face, like most people do. People would usually think I'm weird, because I do that, so it was a gift from the goddess herself that I had someone to explain it for me. The lady went back to work, I could tell by the clinking of dishes and glasses.

Yuri and I sat at the bar stool and waited. You remember when Yuri said, "A little while"? Well, it was more like a while in general, seeing as we had to wait about an hour for the blonde knight to show up. In the meantime, Yuri and I had some small talk.

"So, Markus. Where are you from?" Yuri asked me, trying to start up a conversation.

I turned to him and answered. "I lived in the lower quarter all of my life."

"Looks like we're on the same page!" Yuri looked skyward. "I was born and raised in the lower quarter too. Though, why didn't your dad move up to the royal quarter if he was a knight?"

I propped my head up on my hand. "He said he likes it down here. He was also born and raised here."

We talked for an hour or two before that blonde knight arrived. He entered the same way we did and walked up to Yuri. He said,"The problem has been taken care of." He looked at me. "I presume this is the victim, Markus?"

"Yeah." Yuri said to him, putting his hands behind his head.

The knight walked up to me and looked at me. "Yes, I can see the resemblance. Who to think that he would turn into a child abuser?"

"Uh..." I said, curious as to what he was doing. I was a little shy when I was 13, so it was a little awkward to have someone I didn't know look me over.

"Oh, my deepest apologizes." He bowed. There's that gesture again.

"Oh brother. Same old Flynn." Yuri said, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"I am Flynn Scifo. I grew up with Yuri here in the lower quarter." The knight said, after he finished his bow. "Your father is Julius Talon, correct?"

"Yes sir." I said. I was also one who used formalities back then.

"Oh brother. Don't tell me the formalities are a thing for knight's kids too!" Yuri said, annoyance in his voice yet again. I could tell, right off the bat, that Yuri and Flynn were opposites. Yuri doesn't use formalities, Flynn does. Yuri is laid back, Flynn works his tail off. It's a common stereotype with childhood friends.

"Your father has been charged for child abuse. You will not be able to see him until you come of age." Flynn told me. I was both happy and sad to hear my father had been arrested. Happy the abuse was over, but sad that my father was put in jail for seven years. Or so I thought at the time.

"Markus, do you have any other family?"

"No." My eyes almost welled up with tears, so I looked down toward the ground. "They were all killed in the Great War seven years ago. My mother had died not to long after. My father and I are the only ones left of our family."

"I see." Flynn had a little sadness in his voice, but not too much. The knights weren't supposed to be professionals at this "shoulder-to-cry-on" stuff. "I am afraid I have no choice but to send you to and orphanage outside of Zaphias, seeing as our current one is already full."

Now, this made Yuri's fury spark. "Now hold on 'Mr. White Knight'!" Yuri got up from the stool and walked over to Flynn. "I don't give a damn what rank you are in the knights, but you can't decide where this kid can live!"

"Yuri, it's for the best." Flynn said turning towards him, agitated.

"For the best?! You're kidding me! He's been through a lot, and from what I understand, he doesn't wanna move to a town he has no idea about! This is the only town he knows!" Yuri said. What was he doing? Why was he sticking up for me?

"Why do you always but in when there is a problem that does not concern you!?" Flynn said.

"This DOES concern me! He told me his problems, and I went to you! So, yeah, this DOES concern me! Are you just gonna say, 'Oh, sorry we have to send you to a place that you have no freaking idea about'? He's only lived in Zaphias. So you're just gonna send him to a random place and say it was for his own good?!"

The two just stared at each other for a while, not twitching a thing. The lady, Repede, and I just watched the two, seeing who was going to speak next. The only sound for the next two minutes was the rain and thunder outside.

"Very well." Flynn finally said, breaking the voiceless air. "I will see if he can stay here," he said, pointing to the lady behind the counter and the man who just walked out of the back room, "But...you're responsible for him." I was a little shocked to hear that. Flynn was putting me in the custody of Yuri, a guy who I barely knew. But, like I said, I trusted Yuri. It still felt a little odd, to be with someone I just met.

"I don't remember Commandant Alexei saying anything about retiring early." Yuri said bitterly. I was worried that he wouldn't accept me, but I just kept my mouth shut.

"Yuri..." Flynn said, walking to the door. He opened the door, but didn't leave without saying, "...You've changed ever since you've left the knights." Yuri was a knight?! I decided to ask him the next day.

"Yeah, well, you have too." Yuri said.

Flynn walked out into the storm and shut the wooden door. I stared at the door for a minute, before Yuri said, "Looks like you're stuck with me." I was too zoned out to hear him though. I was thinking about why Flynn had put me with Yuri. I trusted him, but I wasn't sure about living with someone I barely knew. That was all about to change.

"Yoo-hoo! Markus!" Yuri said, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry Yuri. I just zoned out there for a minute." I said, looking up at him.

"You okay?"

"I feel a little weird. I mean, living with someone I barely know and all." I said, honestly.

"Heh. Don't worry, I feel the same way." Yuri said, putting his hands behind his head. "My room is up the stairs to the right of the inn. It's the first door on the right."

We both grabbed our blades and walked out of the inn's restaurant with Repede into the rain. We walked up the stairway and, sure enough, Yuri's room was the first room to the right. Well, I could only _go _right seeing as if I turned left, I'd meet the railing that was used to prevent people from falling on someone's roof. At least there was a beautiful view of the water way from here.

The door lead to Yuri's room. "Here's my humble abode. It's not much, but it'll do." The room wasn't really too big. To my right, there was a square table with a cup on it. Looking a little north, there was a round table, wooden chair, and a window, big enough for someone to sit out on without hitting their head. To my right, there was a bed the size of Yuri, and a green pillow and a water dish at the foot of the bed. I guess that was Yuri's bed and Repede's "bed" and water bowl.

I walked in and looked around, trying to take in everything. After all, this is where I was going to stay. "You don't like it?" Yuri asked me.

"It's not that. I'm just trying to memorize where things are." I honestly said, turning to look at Yuri. I also saw two blade racks, one holding a medium sized blade, and one that held nothing. I thought it was Yuri's katana that rested there, and sure enough I was right, because he put it on the rack.

After putting his blade up, Yuri turned to me and said, "I hope you don't mind sleeping on the floor tonight, seeing as I don't like sharing beds and I have no spares." I nodded, because I understood the fact that he doesn't like to share beds, ESPECIALLY with other guys. That's just...awkward on SOOO many levels.

"I think we'll get along. I'll look around the lower quarter tomorrow for something you can sleep in." Yuri said, laying down on his bed.

"Okay. Yuri?" I said, turning to the swordsman.

"Hmm?"

"Nice meeting you."

"Same here." I was amazed he liked me already, but I thought he thought of me as an acquaintance. I mean, who becomes friends that fast? Well, Yuri would eventually become my best friend, seeing as he changed me. I looked up to him and I always thanked him in my thoughts for saving me from that Hell.

* * *

Those memories take me back, but this isn't the end of our story- Brave Vesperia's story. Please, listen to me. This is...my last chance...

_**BRAVE VESPERIA -THE CHRONICLE OF**_ **_VALOR_-**

* * *

**Author's Note**

**Well, that's Chapter I! Just so you know, I originally censored language, but I stopped that and edited it, solely because it's kind of annoying.**

**Also, yes. The spiky blonde-sword pose IS a reference to Final Fantasy VII. As well as the Star of Xillia being an obvious reference to Tales of Xillia, for the name alone.**

**And NO! The pairing in this story isn't Yuri/Markus (seeing as I loathe yoai and yuri fanfictions) but expect quite a bit of "bromanc" (as most people call it) between the two. Markus love interest won't come for a few chapters. By that, I mean at least by Chapter V, VI, or VII depending on how long each chapter is.**

**Suggested Music (This is where I suggest music for you all to listen to during a second read.)**

**None this time.**

**Am I keeping Yuri and Flynn in character? Repede is a little more friendly this chapter, as that was my intent. I'm just worried about Flynn and Yuri.**

**Also, it'll be most appreciated if you drop a review. I'd like to thank all of those who are following this story and to those who reviewed. A review could have advice, your thoughts on the scenes or OC's Markus and Julius, or just your thoughts in general. Reviews keep me going as a writer! **

**That's it for now and stay tuned for the next chapter, LIFE WITH YURI..._  
_**


	3. Chapter II: Life With Yuri

**Quick little Author's Note here. I just wanted to say thanks for the positive feed back! But, I'll praise you guys in the REAL Author's Note.**

**On a random note, I picture Markus to sound like Reid Herschel (Eternia. Yes the original version, but with a little more "oomph" in his battle cries. The one that sounds like Sly Cooper.), Senel (Legendia), or Asch (Abyss). Though out of those three, Reid's probably my favorite voice for him. Your call though. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**CHAPTER II: LIFE WITH YURI**_

* * *

It took some time, but I eventually had gotten used to living with who I thought was a complete stranger. I got to know who Yuri was on a personal level. I found out that he used to be in the knights, but only for three months. He says that the knights have become incredibly power hungry, which is expected. I mean, no matter how much power you have, you'll always want more, and Yuri and I agree on that fact.

Upon getting to know the swordsman better, I really admired him. He and I had similar interests, like combat techniques, absolute justice, all sorts of things! He was like the older brother I never had. Heck, he even offered to be my sword master! told me that the Strife Style (the style I was fighting before) was effective for two-handed blades, like a Great Sword. He helped me find a better battle pose, even. I remember how that all played out too.

* * *

"Hey Markus, hold your blade in the hand opposite from the one you write with." He said to me on a bright, sunny day.

"Okay." I put my blade in my right hand. It was a little weird to do this, but I did as I was told. "Like this?" I asked while rubbing the bridge of my nose with my left hand. I was rusty, seeing as I hadn't practiced with dad in five years. Yeah, I secretly trained myself, but it was nice having an instructor agaim

"Ah, you write with your left hand. Don't see to many people like that in the world. Yeah! That's good!" He walked up behind me. "Now swing! If you do that, I'll be able to decide what pose is best for you."

"Alright..." It was awkward, to say the least. I mean, how often do you hear someone say, "Hey, swing that little stick around. I wanna see how you fight!" But anyway, I performed a quick, smooth, downward, diagonal strike.

"Wow! Looks like the Swallow Style will fit you the best, going by that speed!" There are many styles of fighting with a sword. There's the Wolf Style (For power-houses), the Dragon Style (For Paladins), the Swallow Style (For fast fighters), the Crow Style (basically a magic swordsman), and the most powerful style of all known as the Fallen Angel Style (For fast hard hitting healers who could also use magic). Depending on your stance, you could use different artes, but only artes in that are suitable for that style, but some artes were linked to two or more. For example, only people in the Wolf Style could perform an arte like Brutal Fang, but two people, one in the Crow Style and one in the Dragon Style, could learn Tiger Blade.

Yuri walked up over to me, and turned my blade arm almost 180 degrees from it's original position "Okay! That should do it!"

After doing that, I said, "This is very awkward." It hurt my right arm a little back then, but I kept my thoughts to myself. I was kinda whiny when I was 13, which I didn't like. I was always so perfect, I remember. I HATED it. Yeah, I didn't have much worries in the world, but after meeting Yuri, I wanted to change.

"Yeah, but it helps your strikes to go by a bit more smoothly, going by your last swing. Strike again." Yuri said, walking over to the stairway that lead up to his room. We always trained at the small, open space to the side of the stairwell.

I rose my sword above my head and struck again. As expected (by Yuri), it made my blade strikes go, not only more smoothly, but also faster as well. "Whoa! You weren't kidding!" I said in amazement to the swordsman, who flashed a smirk. "Hey, Yuri?"

"Hmm?" Yuri said while watching Repede, who was resting on the bottom step.

"What fighting style do you use?" I asked, scratching my head.

Yuri turned to me. "I fight using the Wolf Style." Yuri walked over beside me and put his blade, in it's sheath, on his right shoulder. "Like this."

"Oh." I said, dropping my stance so I could get a better sight of the swordsman's attacks.

"It helps if you use both hands, like me, and if you wanna cover some distance." Yuri then performed three downward strikes (showing me he was ambidextrous), two stabbing motions with a punch in between, a couple downward sweep attacks, and a few upward strikes that had some awkward pauses in between them. "It's basically like the Swallow Style, but it goes a little slower with your strikes, but they're stronger strikes. I thought that it would fit you better." As I said earlier.

"Cool!" I said. Cool? I never usually said that word before that day. I guess Yuri had influenced me, only a day after we met. But, what's weird about it, is that I don't remember Yuri saying "cool" that night. It probably was something that told me it was okay with how I said things, seeing as my dad was in jail (he liked me to speak formally, mainly when he was sane. I spoke formally even when the abuse started). I didn't know it was going to be one of two changes of my persona.

"Yeah, I know. It also helps for some artes, but I'll go over that another day." Yuri sheathed Second Star, and made his way toward the stairs.

"Wait, we're stopping early!?" I asked, following Yuri and Repede up the stairs. I was surprised, probably because I was used to the way dad trained me: an hour or two of sword training, and a half hour of other tactics. This was barely 15 minutes.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Still walking up the stairs, but turning his head a little to the right to look at me a little.

"Well, my dad would usually train me for an hour and talk about battle strategies the next half hour." I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"Whoa, your old man was a pretty strict knight! I mean, who trains for an hour and with no break?" Yuri asked.

"My dad, apparently." I said. Oh man, I _was_ changing! I think our chat in the inn's restaurant played an role in that. I ignored it, because my dad was no longer with me, so I didn't really need to watch how I speak. Sorry, I have a habit of repeating things. I'll try to stop it.

* * *

We kept walking up the stairs and entered Yuri's room. We all sat down, Yuri on his bed, Repede on the floor, and me on the chair at the round table. This is what happened after training days, usually. Even when I got a good place to sleep. Speaking of that, Yuri got up and went over to a wardrobe in his room. Well, our room now.

"Hey, Markus. I went into town and got you something you could use to sleep." Yuri said, opening the wardrobe and looking around in it.

"Oh, really?" I asked, getting up from my chair and walking over to his position.

"Yeah! Here it is." Yuri pulled out a light green hammock from the wardrobe. "I had to 'borrow' it from a vendor out on the streets." Yuri was like that: He'd usually steal or "borrow" things from vendors in the Citizen's quarter. I learned real quick that he like to talk sarcastically. _Very_ sarcastically.

"It's fine! It's better than sleeping on the floor." I said, smiling.

"Oh, are you sure? You know some people find sleeping on the floor royalty." Yuri said, imitating Flynn. He did that a lot, imitating Flynn and the other knights. But I had to ask him something.

When we began to set up the hammock, which was in the corner opposite of Yuri's bed (we had to move some things around), I asked him, "Why don't you get along well with Flynn? You guys _are_ friends right?"

Yuri responded, not looking up from what he was doing (pounding a nail into a wall...WITH HIS FIST!), "He's just someone I grew up with. I mean, yeah, we're friends, but-"

"He's different than you remember?" I ruffled my short, sky blue hair.

"...Yeah. We used to hang out a lot back then. When we were both 11, Flynn had to move to the Citizen's quarter because his dad got a job there. We met up again when we joined the knights. We swore on our blades that we'd fight to make the people smile, regardless of who we were. I guess that's died down now."

"Are you sure? Flynn does seem to care for you like a friend." I don't know why I said that. I think I saw something in Flynn when he talked to Yuri. Yeah, they argued, but...I don't know. I guess it had something to do with Flynn putting me in Yuri's custody.

"You think so? I wouldn't worry about it too much." Yuri said, after pounding the nail in (WITH HIS FREAKIN' FIST! I'LL NEVER GET OVER THAT!).

We finished work on the hammock by putting a nail on the wall beside it, slightly lower than the other nail. It was a fairly big, and -when I tried it out that night- was shockingly comfortable.

"Thanks Yuri!" I said, looking up at him.

"No problem." Yuri went over to the window of the room, opened it, and sat on the edge of it, back touching the right corner of it and one knee propped up a little.

Yuri seemed calm. Granted, he is usually calm and collected at times, but I didn't know that then. I admired him as the older brother I never had, and that began to change me.

* * *

A year later, I had both grown and changed myself. Instead of wearing the formal clothes I used to wear, I now wore a brown belted jacket with gray pockets, black pants, and dark red boots (which had metal foot guards to go with them). I now wore a gray bhodi blastia with white glyphs and a red gem, that Yuri "borrowed" from a knight who was asleep on duty. I always wore it on my left arm, after all you don't know when your gonna get in a battle. It really helped me in battle!

I also became more comfortable with my fighting style and eventually learned my first arte, which involved grazing my sword along the ground which formed a white crescent shaped shock-wave, known as "Demon Fang". I learned a couple of other artes while training with Yuri. Artes take time to master in training, while in battle, your brain works faster and you can essentially learn artes at a faster rate.

My persona changed from being a shy, whiny pre-teen to being a cocky swordsman and I thought Yuri, Repede, and I was the only ones that I could trust. I don't know if I like what I became back then. At the time I would've loved what I had become, but now...I just don't know.

I taught myself the things my mom would've taught me. I borrowed books from the library, mainly because we used Gald on things like Gels and food, all that kind of stuff. I wasn't gonna buy a book that I was only gonna read through once to get the meat of it's lesson. I wasn't a genius, but according to Yuri, it helped him out, because there were some functions of blastia he didn't know about.

My hair had grown out (I _swear_ that has nothing to do with Yuri) to be a slightly longer length than Yuri's. I liked my hair being long, but I _didn't_ like the fact it was all over the place, which also made it very itchy. To fix that problem, Yuri gave me this red hair band that he apparently used in the knights to keep his hair maintained (rather, the knights wanted his hair to look formal, so they gave him that). I tied it on, making a neat pony-tail that was really helped the itchy hair problem, and made my hair manageable.

Another year later (I was 15), I had gotten my trademark hat.

* * *

It was an ordinary day in the lower quarter, with Yuri, me, and Repede (who had grown to be an adult in dog years) just relaxing as usual. We were resting in our room, when I asked Yuri if he wanted to spar.

"It beats being bored all day. Let's go!" Yuri replied, grabbing his blade and going towards the door. He changed too. Yuri went from being a typical swordsman to a sarcastic vigilante. He hated seeing people be hurt, especially if they lived in the Lower quarter.

"All right!" I said, while grabbing my new blade, which Yuri used in the knights. He gave it to me after I learned Demon Fang, leaving me exited. I was a little nervous, because that was my first time wielding a sword other than my wooden practice blade. But, the excitement overshadowed the worry and I had no trouble using the blade.

Upon arriving out at our training/sparring area, we withdrew our weapons (Repede went on over to the bottom step like always). We crossed our blades (our way of saying "get ready") and jumped backward.

I performed a jump attack on Yuri, who guarded with Second Star. "You keep getting better!" He forcefully pushed me back, to which I staggered a little, but I got over it real fast.

"Yeah, well I've got a good teacher!" I said, smirking.

Yuri went up to me and struck, which I responded to by rolling out of the way of it. "Maybe I could take lessons from him!" He was smirking too.

"You'll look stupid talking to yourself!" I ran up to him and performed a downward strike, which he also blocked.

"On second thought," He broke the guard by striking upward, startling me, and striking from above, which I dodged, and said, "I'll pass on looking like an idiot!"

I just laughed and performed another jump attack (which, as expected, was blocked). This is how our sparring sessions usually went. We liked each other enough not to hit each other with our sword, just outdo each other. It was a fun time to unwind, and get any raw energy out. It also helped us learn some new artes, but we had a rule about our spars: No artes. We did this so we could save our energy for a real fight. Oh man, was one about to happen.

We finished our spar by Yuri knocking me down with, you guessed it, a forceful push. This is how all of our spars went: We'd fight, then Yuri would knock me down. We never held back on each other, but we never over did it.

Yuri offered his hand to help me up, which I grabbed to be pulled up by. After being pulled up, I let go of his hand and said, "But the student will never best the teacher."

"Heh. Maybe one day." Yuri said, crossing Second Star with the wind's blade. I grabbed my sword and took the winds place, crossing blades. This said that our spar was over. "You keep getting better Mark." Yuri and I sheathed our blades. Mark was my nickname for Yuri.

"If I was the same person I was two years ago, then I wouldn't be hearing that." I replied, crouching to pet Repede, who had walked up to us.

We both chuckled, then snickered, then just began laughing. Yuri had always bested me in our spars. I guess it's because he had more experience than me in combat, seeing as he was a knight and the fact he was older than me by about five years (he was 20 at the time). Granted, age isn't a variable in combat. All that mattered was your wits and skill. So I thought...

Afterwards, we walked around Zaphias for the H*** of it, something I did by myself from time to time, which I found to be calm at times (it depended on what kind of day it was. If it was calm, which was very rare, it was fine while if it was crowded, it was somewhat of a hassle). The Citizen's quarter was crowded as usual, people moving all around to get their kid that new toy or to head from restaurant to restaurant, whatever they did on normal days.

I was never a fan of crowds. I always lost my mother when we came to this part of the town, leaving my terrified. Sometimes I cried, sometimes I didn't. Back when my dad was free, and being a psychopath, he'd usually lose me on purpose. Thank the Goddess I always ran back into him. He was a psycho, but I didn't have anywhere else to go. I doubt anyone would've accepted me into their homes, even if they were desperate to have a son. After all, they'd find out about who my father was and send me back saying "how dare I ran away from him," so I never tried it. Nobody ever questioned him. He was honored. Too honored.

We wandered around for about a couple of minutes, just wandering around aimlessly. I saw, out of the corner of my eye, someone being dragged by some guy from the Royal quarter (I could tell because of a very fancy red vest. My eyesight is rather good) into the alleyway. My curiosity got the better of me, so I got Yuri's attention and gestured toward the alleyway.

"Wanna go check it out?" Yuri asked silently. I nodded, mainly because I didn't wanna attract attention to it. It's one of those things that you wanna see before anyone else. It's like seeing the clashing of swords over the hill. You want to see it before anyone else, because curiosity bites you. You don't know whether or not there's bloodshed, or it's just two rookie knights fighting for the sake of reclaiming their honor or just training. Regardless, you wanna be the one who says, "Hey, I saw that before anyone else!". Even with who I am as I lay dying, I still feel that way. There's just something so satisfying about learning something everyone would wanna hear or just getting there before the crowd got crazy, and as I mentioned before, I hate crowds.

We walked over there, and planted ourselves (well, Repede just stood behind us) on the creme colored walls of a building and peeked around the corner. Well, the sight wasn't pretty, to say the least. There was a guy, around six foot three inches wearing a red vest with checkered black and white pants and a black hat with a small red feather in the hat's band, pinning an old guy to the wall, who was wearing an orange vest and gray pants with glasses and with silver hair.

I gasped in shock as I heard the man, speaking in an odd accent, say, "Where is the money?!" He was gritting his teeth, I could tell.

The old man said, "What money?" He had the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. _Why's he smiling? _I asked myself._ Is it really that funny to be pinned up to a wall?_

"The money you owe _me _for the payments of that stupid fish market in disgusting place you call home! Or has your old mind became even more useless?" The man tipped his had slightly, but I could still see the flaming rage in his eyes.

The old man chuckled. "Oh, that money." His smile grew even wider. What was he thinking?

"What's so funny, old bag?" The man was pushing even more forcefully, I could tell.

The old man stopped chuckling. "Oh, it's just that, even if I had the money, I wouldn't give it to people like you."

The guy punched to the right of his head (he was wearing spiky combat bracers, which could tenderize someone in two seconds flat). The flame of rage in his eyes grew to being an apocalypse of fire. He gritted his teeth even harder, and pulled back his fist to punch. The old man wasn't even flinching, I guess because this was usual for him (this was evident because of the scar on his right cheek).

I looked at Yuri, who's expression read 'Go for it'. I walked into the alley and called, "You probably don't wanna be doing that."

The guy stopped his punch, and turned toward my direction. "What did you say?!"" He had an agitated look on his face. He still had the old man up on the wall, this time grabbing him by the throat.

I smirked, showing my cockiness. "You're doing it all wrong. If you're gonna be intimidating," I started to imitate his accent, "you gotta stop being cliche. Spice things up a bit!" I heard Yuri chuckle.

The man released his grasp from the old man, letting him fall to the ground. Now, he was pissed-off. I smirked and said, speaking my mind, "Hey, better to be pissed-off than pissed-on!"

* * *

"Okay! BRING IT!" The man came charging up at me, full force. I cracked my knuckles and my neck (despite the fact I wasn't going to be using the former) and waited for the appropriate timing. He kept running at me, and unleashed a forceful punch (that would've killed me) that I easily dodged by leaning backwards. I saw the fist glide right over my field of vision, pushing the wind to another sanctuary, still smirking. The guy had a forceful punch, but he was SLOOOOOOOOOOOW on striking...at least to me. Well, slow to me is the speed of a semi-quick, semi-slow punch to other people.

"How the hell did he dodge that?!" He said, after returning to his former stance, face filled with shock. It's not everyday you see a 15 year old dodge a punch that was going to pierce the heavens, assuming he struck upwards. As a matter of fact, you never see that at all.

"Uh, wrong move pal." I said, shacking my head. I performed two roundhouse kicks, which sent him a good five feet, seeing as kicking is my secondary move (Yuri's being punching and Repede's being a strike from a chain.) "You're supposed to take the opportunity and attack, not sit there looking like a total moro- oh wait. You already ARE a moron!"

Yuri leaned back on the brick wall and said, "I gotta see where this is going." Repede lay down beside him, probably agreeing in dog, judging by his bark.

"THAT DOES IT!" He then performed an uppercut-like move, that sent a yellow crecent shock-wave at me. "DEMON FIST!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. The crescent came at me, at an alarming speed. Seriously, I was surprised at the fact it was going faster than his other strikes. But I still dodged that by jumping over it. It was still an abysmal performance.

After landing, I ran up over to him and performed a few more standard kicks. After a moment, he eventually backed up and said, "You fight like my grandmother!"

I got into my fighting stance again, and bellowed, "You fought your grandma? How much of an idiot are you?" I ran up at him and the real fight began.

He performed a flurry of fast punches (he wasn't holding back any more). After getting tired of dodging, I brought up my Bhodi blastia and performed a defense arte, that usually catches people off guard. "GUARDIAN!" A small blue force-field appeared around me with a design similar to the Barrier blastia's field-of-code (basically how the force-field was supposed to work). His hand was caught up in the field, that hurt him a lot, which was expected, I mean do your hand will just freeze if it were caught in that? Nope, the aer is different on both ends (inside the field there is more condensed aer, not enough to where you can see it, however. Just feel. The one who is important to me told me that.), which could REALLY mess up your body, because it's not used to the aer within the field. He's lucky to have even made it out with just a scratch!

I had to drop my force-field sometime, because my arte stamina (basically, how many artes you could use before you had to wait awhile for it to charge back up by either striking or by medical/resting needs.) was getting low, and I didn't have any Orange Gels, so I just let it go. After recovering, he muttered, "Damn, that hurt!"

I smiled and said, "Just shake it off, you'll have much worse pain to deal with than that!" I cracked my neck again. "MUCH worse."

"Alright, that's it you bastard! YOU'RE DEAD!" He came running at me full force once again, only this time I ran backwards in order to put my plan in motion. He kept getting faster as did I. After we got to where Yuri was relaxing on the wall, I punted him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

I pushed him to the space on the wall beside Yuri, who was smiling. "Yuri!" I shouted, trying to get him to do this attack, that was famous in both the knights and my clan.

"Alright! Let's do it!" Yuri cracked his knuckles and punched the man in the face at the same time I roundhouse-kicked him in the stomach, which sent him to the ground. This technique was called a Twin Strike which, if you struck at the same target and at the same time as someone else, you would cause twice as much damage as a usual strike from two people at different times. That explains why he was knocked out so quickly.

* * *

After he fell down, Repede howled and Yuri said, "Resound, O Cry-Of-Victory!" He withdrew Second Star and put it in the air. I knew what he was doing: The Cry-Of-Victory. A staple in the knights, researchers, and every other faction out there on Terrca Lumereis. It was a sign that we triumphed.

I withdrew my blade and crossed it with his and bellowed, "And may your blade always strike true!" I smiled along with him. We had to use proper tongue, or it wasn't as epic or cool. After we sheathed our blades, I knelt down to the unconscious man. "This is what you get for screwing with people from the Lower quarter."

I looked at his black hat with the small red feather in it. It had an interesting design, which was the way it was made. It didn't look like any ordinary hat that a person in the Royal quarter would have. I don't know about you, but hats are generally made with the stitching going upward, while _this_ hat was stitched with a diamond shaped style. As for the red feather, common hats would have a giant white feather while this hat had a small red feather. I though it was unique, and would make a good lesson to the guy.

I took the hat off of his head, revealing the man's light violet hair. I looked on the inside of it, which was the equivalent of an empty domain (I expected strands of hair. Luckily there weren't any). I tried it on: A perfect fit. Despite the guy's strength, he was just as tall as me, so it was only natural that the hat would fit. I looked at him and said, "This'll teach you not to mess with people! I hope there are more hats like this!" I stood up and adjusted the hat a little bit.

Yuri looked at me and laughed. "Nice hat Markus!" He had a wide grin on his face, that I called "Classic Sarcasm". He usually did it when he was joking with me or being sarcastic with people in the Lower quarter.

I looked at him annoyingly, "Oh ha ha ha. It looks better on me than you, anyway!" I smirked and put my hands behind my head.

"I guess that makes us even then." He leaned back on the wall and smirked as well. Yuri was always calm and collected, for the most part. He wasn't one for revenge or murder or anything like that. So I thought...

"What was that commotion?" I heard a voice say.

"I believe it was over there!" Oh great. The pin-headed, good-for-nothing, and arrogant guardians of the castle: A.K.A The Imperial Knights. Anytime something was out of the ordinary (to them) they'd check it out. They punish the good people and give pity to the criminals. In a way, Yuri, Repede, and I were like the Knights of the Lower quarter, though not like these low budget idiots.

"I think it's time we get out of here Mark." Yuri said, nonchalantly. It was usual for him to hear from the knights when we caused "mischief" as they call it. The Knights were WELL aware of him too, seeing as he was a former Knight. I was kinda well known to them, seeing as my dad was a Knight too, but it was more of a shock (because they think my dad had good nature, and they still respected him.) or hereditary issues (because of my dad being in jail).

"Okay." We ran for the end of the alleyway to perform our getaway. I stopped at the old man and said, "Sorry we have to leave so early. Live to fight another day, right?" I continued to run for the wall. Yuri and I ran up the wall and grabbed onto the ledge and pulled ourselves up, while Repede just ran out. He was pretty stealthy (something we both weren't usually), so we didn't worry about him. Just after pulling ourselves up, we saw two knights in red armor appear: One with the Lieutenant armor and the other with the Private armor.

_Oh great. The Royal Guard._ I thought. The Royal Guard is a special brigade of the Knights, because it's run by their Commandant, Alexei Dinoia. I met him myself on occasion after a work day for my dad, because the two were good friends. I still respected Alexei because he seemed to have his own ideals in the government, even though he was friends with my father. He was probably shocked to hear that his good friend and fellow knight, Julius Talon, was a sick child abuser. Even though I admired his ideals, I didn't trust him after hearing what injustice the Knights were doing. It was weird to think he allowed that kind of stuff.

After seeing the man knocked unconscious hey turned to the old man and asked, "You! Have you seen or heard any suspicious activity in this area?" Another thing I didn't like about the knights then: They don't assume that Yuri and I did it. I really wanted to be remembered as "The Boy Who Fell A Great Distance," so it kinda pissed me off that they didn't say "It was Yuri Lowell and that boy Markus Talon!" Well, they never said that when they _did_ assume, but you get the point...I hope.

The old man tilted his head enough to see our position. I thought he was gonna rat us out, but to my surprise, he turned to them and said, "Hmm? Who?" I was amazed that he didn't and a pretty happy, because, while I wanted to be known as a trouble maker, I HATED their dungeon. It was dark, damp, and I don't know about you, but I'd to be in a fairly lit place with DECENT food, thank you! Sorry, my old self came in there for a second.

ANYWAY, the Lieutenant Knight replied, "Drat! The culprit escaped!" He turned to the Private. "Scout the area!"

The young Private did the knights gesture (He brought his legs towards each other and pounded his chest once with his fist) and replied, "Sir, yes, Sir!" The two ran out and, I guess, did what the Knights do best: Run around aimlessly and give up at the end of the day. Even now, I still think the Knights are idiots, but that may change soon.

The old man turned towards us and gave a small wink. I grinned at him. I got to know the old man later. His name is Nicholas Hanks, or Hanks for short. He ran a small fish market in the Lower quarter, with his wife until her death. His wife gave him a small silver ring with a green emerald in it as a keepsake on her deathbed.

"Markus, let's get going." Yuri was already standing up on the roof we were on, still gripping onto Second Star's sheath. He always held onto it and never slipped it in his belt. It was a weird sight, to say the least, but it kinda showed he was a rebel.

I stood up on the roof and turned towards him. "Yeah. After-all, they are gonna get suspicious if they see us on a roof near the 'crime-scene'." We walked back to the Lower quarter on the roofs of the houses, occasionally jumping when we needed to. Yuri and I talked on our way back, mainly about how how good he thought I did. I wonder though if Yuri saw me as a younger brother, seeing as he always treated me like one. Yuri didn't like the Knights (I.e My dad) but he seemed to respect me enough to keep me around. Repede was the same way.

Speaking of Repede, we met him back in the Lower quarter, resting at the inn's doorstep. He usually did this when we did something like that. He wasn't scared because he ran away, he just knew more than us in terms of retreating and being stealthy.

After our reunion, we decided to spar yet again. We sparred because it let off some steam, and I had a little bit of it to let off after that fight. The hat actually made fighting a little easier, because it kept the sun out of my eyes, so I could see Yuri's movements better. I was afraid it'd fly off, but it never did, amazingly.

I almost won, but Yuri pulled a back attack which caught me off guard. I wonder why I was never able to win against him. I guess it's because he had more experience in combat. Guess I'll never know what it's like to win against your teachers. What's a bigger punch to the gut is that I never beat EITHER of my teachers.

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You may think my story's kind of lame. Please, stay around. It's only the beginning...the beginning of the end.

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**Author's Note:**

**So, what do you think of the voices I recommend? Did you picture another voice on Markus? Let me know in the reviews, if you want to. Speaking of Reviews, how did I do. I got one review saying that Markus was a "Gary Stu". Do you think that of Mark? How did I do with keeping the characters, well, in character. I know, it's a re-imagining, but I'd like to keep all of their persona's intact. **

**As a matter of fact, there is only one character originally from Vesperia who will have a radically different change. That person is Markus' love interest, but that won't happen until MUCH later in the story. She'll already have been in the party for quite a while, but she won't change until a later point in the story. You'll see ;)**

**Do you mind the foreshadowing? I want to keep it as non-foreshadow-ish-esque (What the heck?!) as possible. A review is ALWAYS well appreciated. Let me know how I can improve!**

**Thanks for the feed back guys! It's always WELL appreciated, and it makes me smile to see how people enjoy my story.**

**Oh, and the Belted Coat Mark mentioned earlier is based off of the Anime Character Creator 2 on . I thought you'd like to see what Markus looked like in your head, so I wanted to elaborate.**

**Recommended Music:**

**The Arrow Was Shot: When Yuri and Markus spar.**

**Never Surrender (Radiant Mythology 2 Ver. This is going to be Markus' battle theme) when he is fighting that guy in the alleyway.**

**That's it for now, but stay tuned for the next Chapter, The Aque Blastia.**

**See you Tales Readers...**

**(Yes, that was a reference to Cowboy Bebop. Awesome show. Check it out!)**


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